# Does anyone have standing to file a lawsuit regarding PRISM? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206 "2013-07-22T16:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/1 "2013-07-22T16:48:04Z")
A guy I work with filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the NSA to find out if they were listening to his phone calls. Result: we don’t listen to US citizen’s calls and we neither confirm nor deny that we access the metadata for specific individuals (numbers called, length of call, etc.) since to do so would give our adversaries a window into our technical capabilities and by law we don’t have to, so there. Given that anyone attempting something similar will receive the same form letter, does anyone have any standing to sue on 4th Amendment grounds? Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/2 "2013-07-22T16:51:06Z")
Exactly what damage or harm has someone suffered as a result of this metadata being collected? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/3 "2013-07-22T16:53:38Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > Given that anyone attempting something similar will receive the same form letter, does anyone have any standing to sue on 4th Amendment grounds? Have their persons, houses, papers, and effects been unreasonably searched or seized? Then no. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/4 "2013-07-22T16:58:16Z")
Seems to me you want to come at this from a 1st Amendment / Freedom of Association perspective. It’s no business of the government if one citizen contacts another- why are they recording when such contacts occur? But I’m not a lawyer. And there’s no way I’m suing the NSA. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/5 "2013-07-22T17:35:45Z")
Standing aside (and specific basis–first/fourth/whatever), practically speaking it isn’t likely to matter: The government will invoke state secrets privilege, the courts will agree, and that will be the end of it. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/6 "2013-07-22T17:50:08Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Seems to me you want to come at this from a 1st Amendment / Freedom of Association perspective. > It’s no business of the government if one citizen contacts another- why are they recording when such contacts occur? The First Amendment bars Congress from _prohibiting_ people from peaceably assembling. It doesn’t say anything about their not being allowed to track metadata. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-have-standing-to-file-a-lawsuit-regarding-prism/664206/7 "2013-07-22T18:01:11Z")
Yes, of course. Several groups have already brought suits that are unlikely to be kicked on standing. In fact, the ACLU is a customer of Verizon, and so brought suit on its own behalf. This is actually a much easier case for standing than the typical surveillance case, since the well-supported allegation is that \*all \*metadata was collected, so the plaintiffs don’t need to have a basis for alleging that they were secretly surveilled (which in many of the PATRIOT Act cases they had no evidence of, given the secrecy). Other prudential questions are a closer call. A few judges have started to resist assertion of state secrets to cases in which the details have essentially been revealed by the likes of wikileaks and Snowden.